Deconstructing “Oluwole”: Political Economy at the Margins of the State

  • Olawale Ismail
Chapter
Part of the Africa Connects book series (AFC)

Abstract

In July 1999, following charges of age falsification and forgery of university certificates, the Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives Salisu Buhari was impeached from office. What a section of the press called “Buhari-Gate” is emblematic of a wider phenomenon of document forgery, one that continues to be replicated in different forms locally and nationally, and in the public and private sectors in Nigeria. Underlying the numerous scandals is the “Oluwole” phenomenon. While the phenomenon predates 1999, its regularity and currency in the public domain in the aftermath of the return to civilian rule warrants further investigation (Bayart, Ellis, and Hibou, 1999: 109). With a few scattered exceptions, “Oluwole” has on the whole attracted an embarrassing silence from the criminological enterprise,1 except for occasional media sensationalism (13). The lack of systematic research raises suspicions that even members of the intelligentsia could perhaps be caught in the web of the Oluwole phenomenon.

Keywords

Human Trafficker White Collar Crime Street Vendor Transnational Crime Airline Ticket 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Wale Adebanwi and Ebenezer Obadare 2010

Authors and Affiliations

  • Olawale Ismail
    • 1
  1. 1.Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)Sweden

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